Genetic information, obesity, and labor market outcomes

Norton, Edward C.; Han, Euna

doi:10.1002/hec.1383

Cited by 123 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The most common strategy to deal with this problem is an instrumental variable regression. In this respect, a genetic predisposition (Norton and Han, 2008;Cawley, Han, and Norton, 2011) or the weight of family members (Brunello and D'Hombres, 2007, among others) is often used as an instrument. Proponents of this strategy cite an adoption study by Grilo and Poguegeile (1991) that appears to show no correlation between a common household environment and household members' BMI.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Caliendo

Gehrsitz

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. This paper applies semiparametric regression models to shed light on the relationship between body weight and labor market outcomes in Germany. We find conclusive evidence that these relationships are poorly described by linear or quadratic OLS specifications, which have been the main approaches in previous studies. Women's wages and employment probabilities do not follow a linear relationship and are highest at a body weight far below the clinical threshold of obesity. This indicates that looks, rather than health, is the driving force behind the adverse labor market outcomes to which overweight women are subject. Further support is lent to this notion by the fact that wage penalties for overweight and obese women are only observable in white-collar occupations. On the other hand, bigger appears to be better in the case of men, for whom employment prospects increase with weight, albeit with diminishing returns. However, underweight men in blue-collar jobs earn lower wages because they lack the muscular strength required in such occupations. JEL Classification:J31, J71, C14

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Caliendo

Gehrsitz

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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“…Finally, Norton and Han (2008) examine the effects of BMI on labour market outcomes using DAT1 and DRD4 as instrumental variables for BMI and find no evidence of a causal association.…”

Section: The Empirical Evidence Using Genetic Variantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, both Ding et al (2009) given that the evidence of a robust association for these variants is lacking, this is not surprising (Lawlor, Windmeijer and Davey Smith, 2008). Furthermore, Norton and Han (2008) argue that the effects of the genetic variants differ by gender, while Patsopoulos et al (2007) note that most claims of gender differences are spurious. Finally, Norton and Han (2008) use several variants as additional controls rather than instruments, as they fail the over-identification tests (SLC6A4, MAOA, DRD2 and CYP2A6).…”

Section: The Empirical Evidence Using Genetic Variantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, Norton and Han (2008) argue that the effects of the genetic variants differ by gender, while Patsopoulos et al (2007) note that most claims of gender differences are spurious. Finally, Norton and Han (2008) use several variants as additional controls rather than instruments, as they fail the over-identification tests (SLC6A4, MAOA, DRD2 and CYP2A6). Fletcher and Lehrer (2008) and Ding et al (2009) use several of these as their instruments.…”

Section: The Empirical Evidence Using Genetic Variantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach is receiving increasing attention from economists, several of whom have attempted to identify the causal effect of Body Mass Index (BMI) on economic outcomes (Norton and Han, 2008;Fletcher and Lehrer, 2008;Ding et al, 2009). 1 We contribute to this literature in a number of ways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Genetic markers as instrumental variables: an application to child fat mass and academic achievement

Hinke¹,

Propper²,

Lawlor³

et al. 2010

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The use of genetic markers as instrumental variables (IV) is receiving increasing attention from economists. This paper examines the conditions that need to be met for genetic variants to be used as instruments. We combine the IV literature with that from genetic epidemiology, with an application to child adiposity (fat mass, determined by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan) and academic performance. OLS results indicate that leaner children perform slightly better in school tests compared to their more adipose counterparts, but the IV findings show no evidence that fat mass affects academic outcomes. Acknowledgements:We thank John Cawley, George Leckie, Owen O'Donnell, Jennifer Roberts, Sarah Smith, Nicholas Timpson, and Gerard van den Berg for helpful suggestions. We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. The UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors, who will serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper.

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The impact of income on the weight of elderly Americans

2010

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SUMMARYThis paper estimates the impact of income on the body weight and clinical weight classification of elderly Americans using a natural experiment that led otherwise identical retirees to receive significantly different Social Security payments based on their year of birth. We estimate models of instrumental variables using data from the National Health Interview Surveys and find no significant effect of income on weight. The confidence intervals rule out even moderate effects of income on weight and on the probability of being underweight or obese, especially for men. For example, they indicate that the income elasticity of body mass index is not greater in absolute value than 0.06 for men or 0.14 for women.

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Genetic information, obesity, and labor market outcomes

Cited by 123 publications

References 36 publications

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Obesity and the labor market: A fresh look at the weight penalty

Genetic markers as instrumental variables: an application to child fat mass and academic achievement

The impact of income on the weight of elderly Americans

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